Thanks guys,
It looks like I may have two paths then. I spent 15 minutes before heading out to run Saturday errands, and did get command line push of a ripped DVD to play on my oppo. I linked the Oppo to a zone, and voila! Now all I need to do is get cqc to author the cmd line and I should be good. The command line option of exporting the library is also awesome, as I can setup a nightly dump so cqc is relatively current with the XML library.
I'll try and tinker with the upnp stuff some more. I get a sync, but it continually drops and reconnects. I've tested a little (very little) and couldn't get commands to work... they time out on no response from the Oppo.
Still, I'm one step away from automating movie play from within cqc from ripped DVDs.
***Update
I loaded a general cqc driver that can pass command line with parameters. Hard coding the file path seems to get me what I want, though there are issues with play and replace options. I can get things going if jriver is already open, but not from a closed state. Still, one more step forward. Easier would be upnp, but I'll get this going as proof of concept and then go back to upnp and see what I can get.
Russ